(Minghui.org) A Weifang City, Shandong Province resident was recently sentenced to three years for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Sun Yongqin was arrested on February 28, 2020, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She was taken to the Changyi Detention Center and released five days later, after paying a 10,000 yuan bond. 

Liu Chang’en of the Changyi Domestic Security Office harassed Ms. Sun at home in September 2020. She refused to open the door, fearing that her father-in-law, nearly 90 and with severe depression, might run out. 

Ms. Sun was arrested at her son’s home on May 31, 2021, and was taken to the Changyi Detention Center in the late afternoon, after having a physical examination. When her family went to visit her and deliver clothes to her on June 5 and 16, the guards blocked them both times. She was transferred to the Weifang Detention Center on June 20. 

Ms. Sun requested to be represented by a lawyer on July 13. Police officer Liu informed her son the next day. Her family hired a lawyer who had a video meeting with her on July 17. When the lawyer tried to persuade Ms. Sun to give up Falun Gong in exchange for a lighter sentence at the request of her family, Ms. Sun said to him that many of her ailments recovered from practicing Falun Gong and that there is no way for her to renounce it.

The police submitted Ms. Sun’s case to the Gaomi City Procuratorate on September 6. She was tried by the Gaomi City Court on October 27 through a video conference. Her family received her three-year sentence on December 12. She is still held at the Weifang Detention Center at the time of writing. 

According to information collected by Minghui.org, over 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted in different ways in Shandong in 2020. Four practitioners were persecuted to death, 76 were sentenced, 785 were arrested, 985 were harassed, 21 were forced to live away from home to hide from the police, 165 were taken to the brainwashing center, and 12 had their pension suspended.